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\n<\/p>\n

SHANGHAI\/BEIJING \u2014 Protests against China\u2019s heavy coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) curbs spread to more cities, including the financial hub Shanghai on Sunday, nearly three years into the pandemic, with a fresh wave of anger sparked by a deadly fire in the country\u2019s far west.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has sparked widespread public anger. Many internet users surmised that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fire has fueled a wave of civil disobedience unprecedented in mainland China since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.<\/p>\n

In Shanghai, China\u2019s most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road \u2014 which is named after Urumqi \u2014 for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a large group of police looked on, the crowd held up blank sheets of paper \u2014 a protest symbol against censorship. Later on, they shouted, \u201clift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!\u201d according to a video circulated on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

At another point a large group began shouting, \u201cDown with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping,\u201d according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest against the country\u2019s leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

The police tried at times to break up the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beijing is adhering to a zero-COVID policy even while much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus. While low by global standards, China\u2019s cases have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections reported on Sunday for the previous day.<\/span><\/p>\n

China defends Xi\u2019s signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system. Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world\u2019s second-biggest economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

POWERFUL XI
\n<\/b><\/span>Widespread public protest is extremely rare in China, where room for dissent has been all-but eliminated under Mr. Xi, forcing citizens mostly to vent on social media, where they play cat-and-mouse with censors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frustration is boiling just over a month after Mr. Xi secured a third term at the helm of China\u2019s Communist Party.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis will put serious pressure on the party to respond. There is a good chance that one response will be repression, and they will arrest and prosecute some protesters,\u201d said Dan Mattingly, assistant professor of political science at Yale University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, he said, the unrest is far from approaching that seen in 1989, when protests across the country culminated in the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPopular sentiment matters,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as long as there is no split in the elite and as long the PLA (People\u2019s Liberation Army) and security services remain on his side he does not face any meaningful risk to his hold on power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

NATIONWIDE ANGER
\n<\/b><\/span>The next few weeks could be China\u2019s worst since the early weeks of the pandemic for the economy and the healthcare system, Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in note last week, as containing the outbreak will require additional lockdowns.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the northwestern city of Lanzhou, residents on Saturday upturned COVID staff tents and smashed testing booths, posts widely shared on social media showed. Protesters said they were put under lockdown even though no one had tested positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Candlelight vigils for the Urumqi victims took place in universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Internet users showed solidarity by posting blank white squares on their WeChat timelines or on Weibo. By Sunday morning, the hashtag \u201cwhite paper exercise\u201d was blocked on Weibo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018WE DON\u2019T WANT HEALTH CODES\u2019
\n<\/b><\/span>Videos from Shanghai showed crowds facing police and chanting \u201cServe the people,\u201d \u201cWe want freedom,\u201d and \u201cWe don\u2019t want health codes,\u201d a reference to the mobile phone apps that must be scanned for entry into public places across China.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. <\/span><\/p>\n

The city\u2019s 25 million people were put under lockdown for two months earlier this year, an ordeal that provoked anger and protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chinese authorities have since then sought to be more targeted in their COVID curbs, an effort that has been challenged by the surge in infections as the country faces its first winter with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday night, crowds took to the streets of Urumqi, chanting \u201cEnd the lockdown!\u201d and pumping their fists in the air after the fire, according to videos on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of Urumqi\u2019s four million residents have been under some of the country\u2019s longest lockdowns, barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Beijing, 2,700 km (1,700 miles) away, some residents under lockdown staged small protests or confronted local officials on Saturday over movement restrictions, with some successfully pressuring them into lifting the curbs ahead of a schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n

A video shared with Reuters showed Beijing residents marching in an unidentifiable part of the capital on Saturday, shouting \u201cEnd the lockdown!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Beijing government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. \u2014 Reuters<\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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